Line item (Cell) Comments

DeveloperCYT
edited August 2023 in Modeling Ideas

The ability to add a comment to a line item would be useful, so if we had a line item that was number format, the ability to add a comment  eg."increased due to promotion", it gives a narrative for the value in the line item.

I appreciate that line items are not fixed (as in Excel cell comments) but this would be a very useful feature, or if there was another way, without adding a comment line to the module, which takes more space and maybe 80% of the time would be empty.

Tagged:
23
23 votes

On Roadmap · Last Updated

Comments

  • Status changed to: On Roadmap
  • I agree. Especially for financial planning summary grids there's a need to display some comments as notes on the narrative behind the value, why it's changed since last time, what other assumptions are factored, etc. Just like the notes feature was added to the Settings end of Lists and Modules, a Notes functionality is needed on the user end. Perhaps function where a boolean is checked within the module to open up a new text field to become available for the intersection of the each of the module's line items and dimensions. The boolean would help control sparsity for where comments are not needed.

  • More than a notes functionality, it should be a discussion, similar to Google Sheets:

    - can be opened by any user. 

    - users can be tagged so they get notified. 

    - comments/replies can be added to the initial cell comment.

    - cell with discussion can be identified clearly (compared to cell without discussion

    - all module's discussions can accessible from one feed, with read/unread status, with reference to related cell.

     

    This would ease a lot collaboration on data that is planned in Anaplan, and avoid lots of emails with screenshots and back and forths to Anaplan model. 

  • Thanks all for your feedback and suggestions - cell level commenting is currently planned for the Anaplan UX later this year and will include clear identification as to which cells contain comments. These will also be stored externally to the model and as such will not affect model size.

  • A technical way for Anaplan to build this would have been to have the ability to tie a LineItem_A (ie: Input Number) to another "Text" LineItem_B (Comment) providing they are of same Dimensions.
    Then on the UI, similar to Excel, have the ability to right-click on LineItem_A and select "notes" and type (or read) in the pop-up box the comment from LineItem_B associated to that LineItem_A cell.

     

    But the idea to store the information outside the model is infinitely better from a sparsity standpoint... but will be more complex to implement.

     

    This feature would be of tremendous use when documenting the Planning/Forecasting Inputs. I feel like right now, the lack of this ability is a show-stopper on many user-stories from our end-users' feedbacks.

  • @EmilyJ 

    Could you please merge this with https://community.anaplan.com/t5/Idea-Exchange/UX-comments-per-each-individual-cell/idi-p/130775  

    As there are additional thoughts published.

  • Hello, is there any update on cell level comment functionality in anaplan. This is key decision criteria for one of my client.

  • Google Sheets or similar functionality would enable collaboration within the tool and support one source of truth

    *tagging user results in notification

    *support workflow processes

    *comment in the cell (row / column/ planning tab)

    *cell with discussion can be identified clearly (compared to cell without discussion) 

    *comments/replies can be added to the initial cell comment.

    *all module's discussions can accessible from one feed across the hierarchy of planning tabs, with read/unread status, with reference to related cell.

     

     

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